Media Statement

The African National Congress, gathered at its 114th Anniversary in Moruleng in the heartland of the Moses Kotane Local Municipality on the 10th of January this year, and declared 2026 as “The Year of Decisive Action to Fix Local Government and Transform the Economy”. In the spirit of that declaration, and since the beginning of this week, the African National Congress, which has carried the trust of the people of South Africa for one hundred and fourteen years, opened its Public Nomination for the centralised selection of the ANC Mayoral candidates of our country’s eight metropolitan municipalities and twenty-two secondary cities and towns.

The Freedom Charter, adopted by the people themselves at the Congress of the People at Kliptown on 26 June 1955, teaches that “the people shall govern”, and that “every man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws”. Local government is the sphere of the State closest to the daily lives of our people. It is the sphere in which the teaching of the Charter must find its most direct expression. The African National Congress, in this hour, turns to the people of South Africa and asks the country to participate directly in identifying those who will carry the responsibility of municipal leadership as Mayors in the next term.

This invitation is genuinely open to all. Any South African who is not a card-carrying member of the Movement may nominate a fellow citizen of integrity and capacity, through the same portal and on the same terms as any member of the ANC. A South African who is not a member may also self-nominate and place her or his own name forward as a nominee for consideration. The door is extended first; the question of membership comes later, in line with Rule 4.16 of the ANC Constitution and the Resolution of the National Working Committee, and before any name is publicly announced. This is the deliberate intention of the Movement, that the African National Congress belongs to the people of South Africa, in the spirit of the Charter’s declaration that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

The Public Nomination Stream is one of six structured channels opened in this cycle. The Provincial and Regional Executive Committees nominate through their structures. The Alliance Partners – COSATU and SANCO, as well as CONTRALESA – nominate through the standing alliance compact. The four Leagues of the Movement – the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), the ANC Veterans’ League (ANCVL) and Mkhonto WeSizwe Liberation War Veterans (MKLWV) – nominate from within their constitutional mandate.The Sectoral Coordination of the motive forces nominates from the broad sweep of the Mass Democratic Movement that has always carried this country forward. And now, through this Public Nomination Stream, the people themselves nominate. The Officials of the Movement, acting under Candidate Selection Rules, will then shortlist, interview and select ANC Mayoral candidates from this widened field. The communities endorse and the People elects.

The renewal of the African National Congress and of its Alliance is the most pressing organisational task of this generation. The January 8 Statement of this year said it plainly: we either renew or perish. The Renewal Programme of the African National Congress is the daily work of restoring the highest standards of excellence, integrity, humility, hard work and competence to the conduct of the Movement and of the. State the Movement leads. It is also, in this hour, the work of closing the distance between the African National Congress and the people of South Africa. The Public Nomination Stream is one structural expression of that work – the Movement bridging and coming ever closer to the people from whom it was born one hundred and fourteen years ago, and to whom it remains accountable.

The Movement asks the country to come forward with women and men of integrity, of competence, and of demonstrable readiness to carry these offices in the service of the people. We are choosing, in this cycle, those who will restore the water and the lights, fix the potholes, clear the refuse, keep the municipal offices honest, and bring local government back to the standard the Freedom Charter has always demanded of it.

How to participate

The portal is at https://www.anc1912.org.za/anc-mayoral-candidates-form/. The final cut-off for this intake is midnight on Friday, 22 May 2026. Each nominee will, at the appropriate stage of the process, sign the procedural undertakings governing this selection and the Pledge to Serve Better, in line with the Resolution of the National Executive Committee. The Movement will be ready. The readiness is being built – name by name, branch by branch, community by community – in this nomination window.

This year, the people of South Africa also mark thirty years since the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic. The Freedom Charter and the Constitution sit together in this hour, as they have always sat together on the long road of our struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, united and prosperous South Africa. The African National Congress, in its one hundred and fourteenth year, stands by both – and asks the country to stand with it.

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